The Internet Newsletter for Lawyers in 2021

Big changes here at infolaw Towers! The Internet Newsletter for Lawyers is now an online-only publication. The Newsletter has been published bi-monthly in print and pdf since the late 90s and online on the infolaw website since 2007. But the time has come for us to concentrate our efforts on our online services. We have […]

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An internet primer: web addresses and web pages

URLs A Uniform Resource Locator (URL), colloquially termed a web address, is a reference to a web resource that specifies its location on a computer network and a mechanism for retrieving it. A URL is a specific type of Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), although many people use the two terms interchangeably. The most common URLs […]

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Facebook moves UK users from EU to US terms

Facebook has announced that it will be moving all its users in the UK into user agreements with the corporate headquarters in California. Currently they have user agreements with the Irish subsidiary of Facebook, which are governed by EU law.  Facebook claims the reason for this change is due to Brexit: “Like other companies, Facebook […]

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Online Safety Bill upcoming

We previously reported on the Online Harms White Paper in 2019, in which the government set out various proposals to reduce illegal and harmful online activity. The government has now published its full response to the consultation process. The government plans to take forward most of its original proposals, in the form of a forthcoming […]

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Regulating deepfakes using performers’ rights

On Christmas day, two speeches by the Queen aired on UK television. But only one was real. The real speech was delivered by the monarch herself and aired on the BBC, as is customary. The second was a parody performed by a “deepfake” of the Queen, and broadcast by Channel 4. Hundreds of viewers are […]

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Artificial Intelligence and the Legal Profession

How are new technologies changing the practice of law? With examples and explanations drawn from the UK, US, Canada, Australia and other common law countries, as well as from China and Europe, this book considers the opportunities and implications for lawyers as artificial intelligence systems become commonplace in legal service delivery. It examines what lawyers […]

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Key data protection challenges for 2021

Data globalisation after Schrems II Browsing the web. Using apps. Communicating electronically. Shopping online. Working from home. Life as we know it relies on data flowing across geographical borders throughout the world. However, international data transfers have never been more scrutinised. Following the ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in […]

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Employee monitoring software: is it legal?

For most law firms time recording constructs and the idea of annual billable hours have always meant that “productivity” could be monitored. Any of the managing partner’s typical calls to action of “you’re not billing enough” or “your time recording is down” can be justified where fee-earners have to account for every minute. Even if […]

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Mutant algorithms: who is to blame?

Most would agree that it has been a year that feels like it was drawn from the storyline of a particularly lurid B-movie. Even by those standards, though, the comment “I am afraid your grades were almost derailed by a mutant algorithm” was one that stood out, painting a picture of Britain’s youth falling victim […]

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ICO concludes Cambridge Analytica investigation

Although the internet was born out of a military research project, many of its original advocates touted its democratic potential to provide a platform for free exchange of ideas and creativity. But there were always voices of warning that the mass connectivity resulting from a global network could lead to something more Orwellian. The creeping […]

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An SEO glossary

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results. This glossary explains all the terms relevant to that practice and more generally to website development. There are many more useful articles on these topics on the Hallam Blog. 301 Redirect – […]

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An internet primer: the Domain Name System

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical, decentralised naming system for computers, services and other resources connected to the internet. It translates domain names (like yourfirm.com) to the numerical IP addresses needed for locating and identifying computer services and devices with the underlying network protocols (like 95.232.149.44). The DNS provides a worldwide, distributed directory […]

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